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My nephew shot his first ever buck this season. Not a giant 8, but respectable. I was wondering if any of you have ever seen a set of antlers mounted on cookie of wood( bark still intact) with a picture of the person and deer embedded into it. I have never seen it, but am wondering if anyone has. Just a hair brained idea. If anybody has other suggestions, please feel free to chime in and add pictues. Looking for ideas for a Christmas present.

Thanks and happy hunting!

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i have seen antlers mounted on slices of birch with the bark intact. birch bark is somewhat fragile, so give it a bath with hairspray. helps hold it together. as far as adding a pic into it, if able, route out an area a bit bigger than the pic. take a torch to kinda burn the edges of your routed out section. clear coat the wood and glue the pic in. then get a clear epoxy and fill in the pic cavity. looks great this way, maybe more than you want to do though.

also, a diagonal slice in a chunk of wood gives you more room to work with, then the mount would be oval instead of circular. a cheap way for your nephew to proudly display that buck for a long time!

are the antlers still attatched to the skull? if the skull is still there, then do a european mount. they look great too. and i know some guys here will tell ya where they would take it.

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I've mounted many sets of antlers and most any piece of slabwood works well. I have cut some bases in the shape of broadheads for my bowkills and I have one group of antlers on an old barnboard up at the cabin that looks really nice.

Here is a sample of some of the ones I've done.

Just use your imagination a bit and keep your eyes open. You can find all kinds of cool things to use.

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nice work there with the mounts. Another little touch a guy can do is glue an empty shell of the caliber he shot it with and a little engraved plate with the year and county. I wish I had done that with some of the horns I have. All those years seem to run together anymore. This would be an excellent time for the lad to start a log of his hunting years to come.

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I bought a cheap Turkey Frier and I do my own European Mounts. Takes a little bit of work but better then cutting them off and not using them. Cabela's has a kit with the wood, chemical, and some tools to get it done. Costs about 50-60 bucks. Takes a good day but you can get it done and catch a buzz at the same time.

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I'd agree with the European mount being one good way to get it done. My brother does them and uses the beetle method. I don't have one yet, kind of waiting for the "Not quite head mount, but still really nice" rack to come along.

If your nephew grew up admiring some of the old racks that might be around your family, I'd say go traditional antler only mount, but instead of the shield or round piece behind it, see if you can find a nice cutout of the state of MN (assuming it was a MN deer) or whatever state he shot it in, put a small engraved plate with the year and area he shot it in under the rack, and glue an empty shell (maybe he has his brass?) above it. Kind of a traditional look with a way to always remember the details.

I know that I had dreamed of having one mounted like my dad, uncles, etc. when I was a kid, and was actually more thrilled to get the old fashioned plaque mounted antlers than I would've been with anything else...

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Here are a couple very basic antler mounts with saddle tan leather stretched over the mache/foam. If you can make precise cuts to manipulate the leather around the antler burrs it gives the mount a very sharp/clean look, and ultimately alleviates the need for braid to cover up any mis-cuts around the burr.

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The thing with beetles is you dont just buy some and put them on the skull, You need to build a colony, they need to be in atleast 85 degrees. with a air exchange, they smell, so the wife wont let them be at home unless your wife is much more understanding then mine. You then need to have the equipment to degrease and whiten. This also includes the chemicals needed.

I have atleast $400 into my set up. not including all the little bins needed to soak the skull.

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Thanks for all the great ideas. Please keep them coming! I think I have decided on what I am going to do. I will try to explain it the best I can, and I will share pics when I get it completed.

I will use a diagonal cut piece of ash or basswood with the bark still attached. mount the antlers with black felt and gold rope trim. I will burn an area slightly bigger than the picture I am going to use. Use a piece plexi-glass the size of the picture and hold it down with cut off .270 cartridges ( that is what he shoots) in the corners. The cartridges will have to be machined a bit to capture the plexi-glass. I will drill holes to recess the cartridges into and hot glue them in place. Finish it with a light stain and a couple coats of poly. I am not sure how this will all look, but this is my vision. It amy end up in the wood stove if it bombs!! I wish I was artistic so I could draw it out before I go through all the work. Oh well, that is part of the fun of trying something new!

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You might be better off trying to do some research on your own on the old shotgun. I think it would be a waste of time taking it to Cabela's since most of the folks who work there now think any gun made before 1970 is an antique.
The gun surely is made in Europe and might have originated in one of the English or Belgian or even German "guild" shops, little outfits that cranked out inexpensive guns that did not even bear maker's names since they were made by a "bunch" of guys. Your best bet would be to trace or photograph the proof marks and go from there. That is, I'm assuming it has proof marks :).

For an exciting adventure in shooting grab an old "trapdoor" Springfield and rattle off a few rounds of 45-70 or 45-90. If you're of skinny build and little weight it'll give you a THUMP you'll remember! Perfect deer cartridge for MN though since that big ol' bullet will go churning through the brush like a D-8 Cat until it hit's it's target.
Have been around the old '94 30-30 since way back when and while it is handy it is not that accurate and lacks the knock-down power of many, many of today's rounds. But if you just have to have one as I always say, it''s your money.
Keep in mind you can buy the .35 Remington in a pump action, which a lot of MN duck hunters find easy to use come deer season.

I have an old Damascus barreled shotgun that was passed on to me by my grandpa. The story I have always heard and been told is that it was brought over from Denmark by my great grandfather in 1915. It has no markings indicating where it was made or anything else that I could use to figure out some history on the gun. It is a pin fire and has a stag carved into the underside of the stock. Anyone have any ideas on where I could find any info on this? I had thought about bringing it to Cabelas and see if they knew anything about it. I'm not concerned about the value. I'd just like to know a little more about it or even get pointed in the right direction.

I wouldn't mind having a lever action 30-30 just because everyone should have one. I'd bet a big percentage of us carried one our first time out deer hunting. My grandpa had a Marlin in either .44 or .357 that I wish I'd have gotten. I've also thought about a 45-70.

This is an intriguing round for sure. Ballistics and long range performance is supposed to be good. Ammo seems priced reasonably. A big plus is that you can get it in an AR-15 and with a 90 grain bullet I wouldn't be afraid to use it on deer sized animals. I've always liked the idea of having multiple uppers for my AR.

The Trestle got 10+ inches of snow today ,,, May have to make plans to go take a peek at the trails this weekend ,,, Hopefully the groomers can get out and pack the trail a little bit to cover the rocks

Ha! I am looking into the app controller outlets but not for plugging in the pickup. I just built a deck on the back of the house and I'm going to pull wire and add some extra outlets out there for lights. They'll be much easier than putting in more switches to control them.